TNAG-0974-FCO40-1193-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-other--1980 — Page 193

BY BAG

FM

FCC

CONFIDENTIAL

CONFIDENTIAL

SAVING TELEGRAM

Akk 24315

RECEIVED IN REGSARY NO. 51 11 FEB 1980

DESK OFFICES.

INDEX

هنا

15

PA

REGISTRY Action Taken

see

28

18

диг

Aw 18/2

ΤΟ

BONN

AND TO:

FOR INFO:

TELNO 1

SAVING OF 6 FEBRUARY 1980

ATHENS, BERNE, BRASILIA, BRUSSELS, BUENOS AIRES, CANBERRA, COPENHAGEN, DUBLIN, THE HAGUE, HELSINKI, OSLO, PARIS, ROME, STOCKHOLM, TEL AVIV, TOKYO, VIENNA

BANGKOK, BOGOTA,

HONG KONG, JAKARTA, KUALA

LUMPUR, LIMA, MADRID, MANILA, OTTAWA, SINGAPORE, UKMIS GENEVA, WASHINGTON, WELLINGTON

4

FCO TELNO 10 TO UKMIS GENEVA (NOT TO ALL): VIETNAMESE BOAT REFUGEES IN HONG KONG

1.

The slow rate of resettlement of Vietnamese boat refugees from Hong Kong, and the large numbers remaining there, continue to be of great concern to HMG and the Hong Kong Government. My immediately following Saving telegram contains tables showing comparative arri- vals and departures for countries of first asylum in the region and cumulative resettlement programmes for boat refugees from Hong Kong and ASEAN since late 1975.

2.

Unless you see strong objection, please now make representations at a suitably high level, drawing on the information in MIFT which you may communicate as appropriate, and on the following points as you judge best:

(a) During 1979 only 32% of the boat refugees who were in Hong Kong

at the end of 1978 and those who arrived in 1979 were resettled. This is approximately half the percentages for Thailand and Malaysia.

(b) Of the 135,600 boat refugees resettled from all places of first asylum in 1979, only 18% came from Hong Kong, compared with 50% from Malaysia. At the end of 1979, Hong Kong had 38% of the boat refugees in the region compared with Malaysia (25%) and Indonesia (24%) and it still had then almost the same number of refugees (52,000 +) that it had at the time of the Geneva Conference in July.

CONFIDENTIAL

/(c)